relationships as determinants for Chinese farmers’ decision-making
3. Empirical methodology and data analysis
In order to analyse the Chinese farmers’ value positions and guānxi traits, farm households (n=394) were surveyed in Shandong Province.
This agricultural area is characterised by intensive winter wheat/
summer maize crop rotations and nitrogen application rates of more than 500 kg N/ha (CUI et al., 2010). Guided by the literature, a number of opposed items were selected for the questionnaire, as basis for the measurement of the farmers’ varying agri-environmental attitudes, guānxi specifications and value positions (see VOGEL, 1996; DUNNING
and CHANGSU, 2007; WORLD VALUES SURVEY, 2007; SCHWARTZ, 2006).
The data analysis was conducted via PASW Statistics 18. Univariate analyses show frequencies of the respondent’s decision-behaviour; bi-variate methods are used to correlate variables and factors to analyse statistical relationships between values, guānxi and different attitudes, and structure discoverying multivariate analyses facilitate a reduction of the large number of items for underlying decision-determinants.
3.1 Farmers’ decision-behaviour
Univariate analysis showed that farmers’ decision-making on annual production is apart from own experienced practices (42.1%) guided by the neighbours’ practice (11.8%) and only to a very low extent by ad-vices of extension serad-vices (1.3%). A similar picture was given when asking about farmers’ support on nitrogen and manure management:
61.2% stated that established habits and traditions play an important role and only 7.9% rely on information of the agricultural extension services, which indicates that guānxi is important for their decisions.
3.2 Factor analyses of guānxi and agri-environmental attitudes Tab. 1: Guānxi-traits (Principal Component Analysis, Varimax Rotation)
Principal
Components Guānxi traits 1 2 3 4 Cron-bach’s α
Collectivism
I put group harmony above my
own opinion. .891
.739 It’s fair that group interests
pre-vail over individual interests. .883 Related to work alone, I like to work in a group. .541
Personal ties
A personal connection is deve-loped and reinforced through per-sonal care and commitment.
.734
.607 In my network of contacts, people
depend on one another. .714 People should help one another;
you never know when you might need their help.
.641 A personal relationship with
oth-ers is part of daily life. .545
Utilitarian
It is fair that people gain benefits by depending on their network of contacts.
.883
.704 It is natural that I give favours to
and receive favours from my net-work of contacts.
.844
Transferable
My limited contacts do not mat-ter; my contacts are able to
intro-duce me to their network. .871 .623 I can make use of my contacts’
contacts as long as I have a good
relationship with my contacts. .789 Source: Own calculation, KMO-Measure of Sampling Adequacy: 0.675
The initial number of items was reduced by means of factor analysis in order to suggest underlying variables (Tab. 1). Four factors were set referring to the guiding principles of guānxi relationships: (1) Collectiv-ity takes precedence over individual interests. As such, Confucian doc-trines of harmony and communitarism are highly valued. (2) Personal ties are set out to be longterm oriented. They are defined by reciprocal interdependency and personal commitment in daily life. (3) The utili-tarian trait of guānxi is rational motivated and linked to an expected
benefit from any relationship. (4) Transferability of contacts enables the navigation of the relationships in order to enlarge the own scope of action. Further extracted two factors show directives of farmers’ agri-environmental attitudes (Tab. 2): (1) Neither a critical nor a differenti-ated perception of environmental issues, since fertilizers are not re-garded as harmful. (2) Concern about economic risks resulting from a reduction of nitrogen and the families’ financial security. The share of cumulative agreements shows that more than two third of the farmers consider these statements as important. Regarding the response style of factor 1, agreements and disagreements to single items split up nearly equally, meaning that farmers indeed have different states of infor-mation and that this field of knowledge is not yet implemented.
Tab. 2: Environmental attitudes (Principal Component Analysis, Varimax) Principal
Components
Environmental attitudes
[in brackets: share of cumulative agreements/ disagree-ments; neither agree nor disagree ignored]
1 2
Environmental problems are not related to
my behaviour in fertilizer usage. [44/43] .782
.604 I don’t think about environmental aspects, I
just do my work on the farm. [44/45] .715 Commercial fertilizers and pesticides
pro-mote high quality. Beside they’ve no harm-ful effects. [46/36]
.623 The groundwater burden resulting from the
washing out of fertilizer not worse. [29/22] .551 Economic
security prior environmental issues.
If I stop N-use in order to reduce the harm of the environment, it would be too risky for the income. [64/22]
.895 .750 For the sake of the environment, stopping
N-use is too risky for the hoN-usehold’s annual income. [74/17]
.880 Source: Own calculation, KMO Measure of Sampling Adequacy: 0.602 3.3 Ordination analysis of the Chinese farmers’ value position In order to analyse value positions of Chinese farmers, STRACK’s (2010) formula is used to generate two axes in the value cycle of SCHWARTZ
(1992)1. The intersection of the mean values on both axes results in the farmers’ particular value position on the value cycle. A multivariate ordination compares the farmers’ value position with that of other countries investigated for the European Social Survey (ESS,2010). This is possible, because replicability of fundamental values in different cul-tures is proven (SCHWARTZ, 1992; STRACK, et al., 2008). Fig. 2 shows that compared to western and northern European countries, Chinese farm-ers are more likely to agree to traditional and egocentric values, since family and its security is traditionally more valued than universal is-sues out of individuals’ relationships. Refering to eastern European countries, their value position is more universal which refers to Confu-cian roots and its persuit of the collective’s harmony.
Fig. 2: Chinese farmers’ value position
Source: formula according to STRACK, 2010; EU country data of ESS, 2010, 1-4.
3.4 Correlation between guānxi and fundamental values
The correlations show that each guānxi trait could be traced to the va-lue axes. The overall guānxi factor significantly correlates with the uni-versal value axis, but is not affected by the traditional value axis. Thus, there is evidence that guānxi is mainly influenced by universal value
1 The formula was determined factoranalytically from the four rounds of the Euro-pean Social Survey (ESS 2002-2008/9) and includes weigths for each of the 21 ip-sated value items. The ipip-sated scores give Eigenvalues that show the elbow ac-cording to the Scree-Test; the base to extract those two factors (STRACK 2010).
orientations. Traditional stability or independent actions (“Traditional value axis”) do not play a role for the concept. So, there must be other driving forces for the maintanance of guānxi relationships.
Tab. 3: Results of the Correlation matrix (Pearson, t-tailed).
Universal value axis Traditional value axis
Collectivism .154** -.091+
Personal ties .136** .145**
Utilitarian -.051 .089+
Navigating relationships -.200** .035
Guānxi .257** .019
Source: Own calculation, **p<0.01;*p<0.05; +p<0.1
A breakdown to single factors highlights the different value weights in the farmers’ general guānxi forming: The factor “Collectivism” corre-lates significantly positive with the universal value axis and slighty negative with the traditional value axis. Thus, farmers with strong fo-cus on collectivity in their personalised relationships are more influ-enced by universal values, like harmony and social justice. Similar val-ue motivations inflval-uence “Personal ties”within the guānxi relationships.
This factor correlates also with the universal value on the axis but as well on the other axis with traditional values like loyality and trust, which are still relevant for personal ties. In contrast to collectivism, this is a typical and important trait for modern, open and self-directive thinking farmers. Less universal, but more self-/family-centred and traditional values shape the “Utilitarian” factor that is characterised by exchange of favours and the persuit of security for personal requests.
The factor “Navigating relationships” shows the highest numerical values on the “Universalism-Axis” towards egocentric values (negative correlation), as this characteristic is practised in order to gain new per-sonal relationships for more influence, achievements and social power, thus for the individual benefit.